6 Quick Google Analytics Tips for Maximizing Data Analysis

Want to learn some quick Google Analytics tips so you can achieve more in less time? Google Analytics can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. But knowing how to do a quick data analysis is sometimes all you need to make better decisions.

In this article, we’ll show you some Google Analytics tips and tricks you can start using today to make data-driven decisions and grow your business in less time than ever before.

1. Switch up Views

You might not know this, but you can change your Google Analytics views to see the same data in different ways.

You can choose from the following views:

Data. This is the most common view and breaks a lot of data down at once into easy to read tables.

Percentage. If you’re more visual, the percentage view shows data in a simple circle pie chart.

Performance. To see the performance of one metric in a horizontal chart, use this view.

Comparison. Plot the performance of selected metrics relative to your site’s average with the comparison view.

Term Cloud. This displays performance keywords for reports that involve terms.

Pivot. The pivot view rearranges data for certain reports for a simpler look.

Keep in mind that not all views are available for every Google Analytics report.

2. Create a Goal

One of the easiest ways to analyze your site’s data is to create a goal in Google Analytics. After all, goals are the way to measure actions happening on your website that directly affect the success of your business.

You can set up destination, duration, pages/visits, or event goals to see data that your default Google Analytics account won’t show.

For example, you can set up a goal to track some of the following:

Which pages site visitors land on the most often

How long visitors stay on your website once they arrive

The number of pages site visitors see before leaving

If you need help doing this, be sure to check out our helpful guide on setting up the 4 types of goals in Google Analytics.

3. Create an Event

If you want to analyze actions happening on your website that may or may not affect your bottom line create a Google Analytics event instead.

For example, form conversions may signal people are visiting your website. But that doesn’t necessarily generate any revenue. However, it’s still important to know that your WordPress forms are converting.

If you want to track form conversions in Google Analytics, be sure to check out the MonsterInsights Forms Addon. It’s super easy to set up and makes tracking conversions a cinch.

For step-by-step instructions on how to do this, check out our tutorial on tracking form conversions.

4. Set a Custom Alert

Checking Google Analytics every day is not always reasonable. That’s why setting up a custom alert that will tell you when something unusual happens on your website can be helpful.

To do this, go to Admin » Custom Alerts. Then click on the red + New Alertbutton.

Next do the following:

Name your alert

Choose the property to apply it to

Pick an email or text alert

Set the conditions of your alert

Apply your alert to all site traffic or a certain segment of traffic. Plus, pick whether you want your custom alert to go off when a metric increases or decreases. That way, when something major happens on your website, you’ll know right away.

5. Measure Your Site’s Speed

WordPress speed and performance plays a role in the user experience, is a major SEO ranking factor, and can affect the success of your website.

And, while using free online tools like Pingdom or GTmetrix work, you may not know you can actually check the speed of your website in Google Analytics.

To do this, you can check the overall speed of your website by going to Behavior » Site Speed » Overview.

Here you’ll see stuff like the average page load time, server response time, and browser speeds.

You can also check the speed of individual web pages by going to Behavior » Site Speed » Page Timings.

Here you’ll see how each page on your site compares to the average page loading speed of your website.

6. Get a Performance Report

Again, time is important when you’re trying to run a successful business. And, checking Google Analytics every single day is not always a good use of time, even though the data is helpful.

That’s why Google has made it easy for you to send yourself a recurring report that’ll show you the data that’s most important to you.

To do this, go to the report in Google Analytics that you want to send to yourself. Then, at top of the screen on the right-hand side, choose a date range.

Prateek has almost a decade long experience delivering measurable business outcomes in Analytics. He is a passionate leader with a proven track record of translating complex ideas into slick and successful executions.